Application of RFID-based tobacco pallet transportation in and out of warehouse operations

1. Project Design

Add a pallet with an RFID chip to the wooden pallet, use a special push-pull RFID forklift to lift the pallet with the whole pallet of cigarettes on it, and load it after the outbound scanner scans the chip information, thus completing the inbound and outbound operation based on the RFID pallet transportation link.

The industrial delivery truck is fully loaded with 1,600 cigarettes per pallet, with 24 cigarettes/pallet, two upper and lower layers, two left and right stacks, and a loading mode of four pallets on a cross section. It can load 64 pallets of cigarettes, 1,536 pieces, and the loading rate reaches 96%, which is 60% higher than the loading rate of 960 pieces of traditional pallet intermodal transport, and 3 fewer workers are used in the loading process.

After the industrial delivery truck arrives at the commercial site, the special push-pull forklift first grabs the pallet, and pushes the 24 whole pallets of cigarettes together with the pallet onto the wooden pallet, and then uses an ordinary forklift to relay the whole pallet to scan the code. After a series of procedures, the warehousing operation of cigarettes in the commercial link has also been completed.

At present, the average unloading time of pallet cigarettes is about 1 minute per pallet, the unloading efficiency of cigarettes is 260 pieces/person/hour, and the unloading efficiency of pallets is about 300 pieces/person/hour, and the unloading process reduces the number of workers by 2 to 3.

Traditional pallet management is difficult and inefficient

II. Project background

From traditional pallets to RFID pallets, the industry has proposed the requirements of "three unifications" for the transportation of industrial and commercial cigarette pallets (unified pallet size, unified stacking method, and unified technical parameters and data format of RFID electronic tags).

If pallet intermodal transportation is realized according to the "three unifications" requirements, it will face huge transformation difficulties and huge capital investment: the initial one-time transformation cost is more than 100 million yuan; the annual transportation cost will double compared with the current level, and the annual increase in freight will be more than 100 million yuan; the transformation period is long, and the transformation site has a greater impact on production and operation.

III. UHF RFID pallet transportation management system

Based on a large number of investigations, analyses and experiments, tobacco industrial and commercial enterprises decided to combine cigarette pallet intermodal transportation with the industry's "three unifications" requirements.

They use the UHF RFID pallet transportation management system solution, which is a pallet with an RFID radio frequency identification tag inside, with high toughness and can be recycled and reused; the RFID smart forklift for loading and unloading pallets is an RFID push-pull forklift assembled by an RFID Reader, an ordinary forklift and a push-pull attachment, and adopts a 24-piece/pallet stacking mode.

3. Technical advantages

The advantages of the UHF RFID pallet transportation management system compared to traditional pallet transportation are mainly manifested in three aspects:

1. Solve the problem of inconsistent pallet standards

Using pallets as carriers, it plays the role of a converter for pallets of different standards, and truly realizes the seamless docking of pallet standards. There is no need to replace or purchase traditional pallets, nor to transform high-bay warehouses.

2. Solve the problem of low loading rate

Compared with the low loading rate of traditional pallet intermodal transport, pallet intermodal transport can reach a loading rate of 96%, greatly reducing logistics and transportation costs.

3. Easy to recycle and sort

Compared with traditional pallets, pallets are small in size and light in weight, and recycling, sorting and warehousing are relatively simple, and the related costs are significantly lower than traditional pallets.

For tobacco enterprises, the use of pallet transportation, in addition to the need to increase the investment of special push-pull forklifts and pallets, the other hardware requirements are consistent with traditional pallet transportation, and no additional investment is required; it has the advantages of traditional pallet transportation, high turnover and protection of cigarette quality; pallets are easy to organize, Store and recycle.

V. Project Significance

Close coordination ensures efficient operation, timely detection of problems, and effective solution of problems.

By improving the material of pallets, strengthening the operating skills of push-pull forklift drivers and other measures, it is ensured that the pallets are placed before storage, the entire pallet is loaded and unloaded, and there is no deformation or significant displacement during transportation.

The solution of a series of technical problems has greatly improved the operating efficiency and quality of tobacco cigarette pallet intermodal transportation. The efficiency of unloading operations has been significantly improved, and the labor intensity of operators has been significantly reduced. The intermodal scope and intermodal volume of pallets are also expanding and growing.